When it comes to romance, women prefer someone who tickles¹ their funny bone while men opt² for those who catch their eye, according to an international survey released on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted in 16 countries by Canadian romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises, asked men and women on six continents about traits they liked or disliked and how they went about trying to meet Mr. or Ms. Right.

The poll revealed differences between countries in the way people tried to impress the opposite sex.

Australians and British men frequently admitted drinking too much, while about half of German and Italian men said they had lied about their finances. Spaniards were the most likely to use sex to catch someone's attention.

Eighty percent of Brazilian and Mexican men said they had lied about their marital³ or relationship status, as did 70 percent of German women, the survey said.

When it came to meeting that special someone, a majority of respondents preferred to rely on friends for introductions. The Internet was not a popular hunting ground except in Portugal, where about half the surveyed men and women opted⁴ to find people online.

Both Spain and France suffered a gender⁵ gap. Thirty percent of Spanish men, but no Spanish women, looked for love online. In France, 40 percent of men but only 10 percent of women attended parties, bars and clubs to meet someone, but they did have one thing in common: both sexes rated looks as more important than their counterparts in other countries.

When it came to that first meeting, a majority of men polled said beauty was more important than brains, while women put a sense of humor at the top of their list.

Physical attraction was the top priority for men in France, Brazil, Greece, Japan and Britain. And while 40 percent of Portuguese⁶ men rated intelligence over looks in a first encounter, no Australian men did so.

In the United States and Canada, humor was considered the most important trait by both men and women, getting 63 and 73 percent of the vote respectively.

男人喜欢美丽的女人，而女人则钟情于幽默的男人，这几乎已成了众所周知的真理。而加拿大日前公布的一项大型调查结果则更加明确地证实了这一点，并且更为详尽地向您阐述了各国男女的恋爱心经。

据路透社1月27日报道，加拿大言情读物出版商Harlequin公司日前着手进行了此项调查，所涉及的对象分布于世界6大洲的16个国家。调查人员向这些来自不同国家的男男女女询问了他们对于异性所具备的各种特点的好恶态度，以及他们在选择自己意中人时所采取的具体行动。

调查人员发现，在不同国家之间，人们在试图博得异性好感时所采取的手段存在着一定的差异。比如，澳大利亚和英国的男性通常会主动承认自己常常饮酒过量；大约有一半的德国和意大利男性表示他们曾在自身经济状况上撒过谎；而西班牙男性则最有可能运用与性有关的手段来赢得女性的青睐。此外，调查还显示，80％的巴西和墨西哥男人表示曾在自身婚姻及恋爱状况上欺骗过别人，而70％的德国女性也有过此类行为。

在被问到会以何种方式来找寻自己的梦中情人时，大部分被调查者表示他们还是偏爱朋友介绍的方法。互联网目前在很多国家尚未成为一种广为流行的交友平台，但葡萄牙是个例外。在接受调查的该国男女中，约有一半的人选择通过网络来寻找意中人。另外，在西班牙和法国的男女之间存在着颇为明显的性别差异：30％的西班牙男性在网上寻找恋人，而该国女性则几乎没有人会这样做；40％的法国男人会通过频繁出入各种聚会、酒吧以及俱乐部的方式来找异性朋友，但仅有10％的该国女性同样精于此道。但在法国，不论男女有一点是高度一致的，即与其它国家的人相比，他们都更为注重对方的外貌。

在谈到与异性朋友的首次约会时，大部分男性被调查者表示，他们更看重女方的容貌而非头脑；而女性则将幽默感置于其对男性的各项要求之首。在法国、巴西、希腊、日本及英国男人的眼中，女人身体的吸引力是他们最为期待的。而有40％的葡萄牙男人认为在初次见面时，女性的智慧比外表更重要。在美国和加拿大，人们普遍认为幽默感对于男女来说都是一种最为重要的品质。